Tag Archives: Chicago Photographer

I took these photos for a friend, Jacque, who is expecting a baby girl any day now. Mateo & I spent the morning with her, our friend Angela, and Rome (the biggest & most handsome dog ever). I was a little nervous about taking on a “maternity shoot” because I know how meaningful photo documentation is. I really wanted to capture the beauty she is and what a special moment in time this is. There was nothing to be nervous about. Jacque is the most down-to-earth, naturally ethereal mama. It was a relaxed morning. Mateo may have eaten a few too many chocolates and watched a couple extra episodes of Curious George on an ipad. But it was a relaxed morning. :)

Isn’t Jacque beautiful? And Rome! That dog is something! :) He was taller than Mateo! But really, he was a gentle giant. He’ll be an excellent big brother. ;)

You’ll love this — that little sweater that Jacque is holding up in one of the photos is what she wore home from the hospital as a newborn! I love that. It’s so special that she can wrap her own baby girl in the same cozy, little top!

I love that I can give Jacque these photos. And I’m thankful to my friend Angela who connected me to Jacque and always pushes me to use my talents. I tend to focus on what I lack in talent, but you need to use what you have to move forward. I do know that. I may never be “ready” but sitting on talent is a waste. For everyone. It really did mean a lot to me to be able to document the end of Jacque’s pregnancy for her. That motivates me. And while I did have to experiment a bit and make poor 38-week-pregnant Jacque move around, we figured it out. And I learned so much. I still don’t think of myself as a “photographer,” but title aside, I’m finding myself more and more drawn to photography. If I could have any wish, I’d probably wish that my eyes could take photos. (And for Mateo’s health and happiness, etcetera, etcetera…sure). :) It wasn’t ever my plan to start taking commissioned photos, but I’m starting to think about branching out and pushing myself in that direction.

I remember (so badly) wanting to be able to capture light-filled images during my pregnancy and just not being able to figure out how. I still have that same camera, but I’ve learned so much more about how to use it. It was through becoming a mom, needing a creative outlet, and wanting to document Mateo — that I started playing around with my camera. This blog in particular has pushed me. I just want to learn more.

Hope everyone stateside (or celebrating abroad) had a Happy Thanksgiving! We did. We ate food, saw family, ate more food. Repeat. And not to be all braggy, but for real, our Thanksgiving spread is always a little bit extra awesome because we have Korean noodles and Korean BBQ beef along side the turkey. And baklava along side the pies for dessert. Sigh, wish there were leftovers…

SO I know everyone’s already singing Christmas songs and rushing to get trees up…but before you completely switch over, WAIT, we have more Autumn to share! Here’s Part two of our second annual trip to Indiana for Pumpkins and Fall Photos. And of course visit Noni & Papa (my parents). ;)

Just your usual December Pumpkin Patch Blog Post! ;) Ya know.

A little late, but moving on. This year was fun because Mateo is truly excited by these special outtings (nothing new) and he remembers them (new!). He’s still talking about the “punkin pash” and the “haywide.” :)

As for the Pumpkin Patch, we told Mateo that he could pick any pumpkin he wanted. He picked a miniature squash and he was done. If you look very closely at the top photos (in the corn maze) you’ll see it clutched in his hands. :) He DID however have fun looking for old rotted pumpkins and yelling “EWWW, yucky punkin” or “GARBAGE PUNKIN!” ;)

Last year he was too tiny to cover much ground. This year, he wandered into the corn maze which was cute stuff. We would have checked out the apple orchard as well but oops, we didn’t check their hours and we ran out of time. Next year! Actually we were alone at the end; caught the very last hayride back. We closed out the pumpkin patch! ;) But really, an hour or so looking for yucky punkins is quite a memory in his book.

If you missed part one, here’s a link to that: fall into autumn part one. And stay tuned. There’s ONE more Fall photo post to sneak in from that weekend way back in October. And OH MAN, it’s DECEMBER already!